ITWF: A Field Study of Individual Differences in the Social Shaping of Gender and IT

EIA-0204246

Trauth, Eileen M.

Pennsylvania State University

Title: A Field Study of Individual Differences in the Social Shaping of Gender and IT.

The under-representation of women in the information technology (IT) field is a significant factor in the American IT skills crisis. Unfortunately, there is a lack of sufficient theory to provide a basis for explanation and prediction about this gender imbalance. The goal of this research is to investigate the particular ways that women IT professionals in America are influenced by and react to the social shaping of both gender identity and IT. Three specific objectives are directed at the achievement of this overall goal. The first objective is to refine an emergent theory of individual differences about women's participation in the IT sector. The second objective is to articulate the ways in which individual and environmental factors are influencing American women in their professional development and current working lives as IT professionals. The third objective is to develop recommendations for proactive responses by public policy makers, employers and educators.

This research builds upon and extends into the American context the emergent theory and methodology that were developed by the Principal Investigator and applied in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Participants in the study are women who work in the IT field both as practitioners and as academics. In-depth interviews with women in the IT sector in selected geographic regions of the U.S. capture the influence of socio-cultural factors in different geographic regions of the country. Four themes about environmental influences that emerged from previous research are used to structure the interview schedule: culture (expressed through societal and workplace influences), educational institutions, family, and government policy. The emergent theory of individual differences is used to focus the data analysis on the ways in which these respondents - as individual women - are responding to socio-cultural influences. Interview data is supplemented by participant observation data and by documentary data about gender and the IT sector in the regions involved in the study. Three themes that emerged from previous research are used to focus the analysis of the data: personal characteristics of the respondent, individual influences experienced by the respondent, and individual responses to environmental influences.